Thank you your contributions to the discussions in Week 1. I picked a few themes which are summarised here: 

1. Many of you shared some sad stories about being excluded. The most sad are those when you were a child and people were unkind or ignored your needs. This is a helpful reminder to all of us that children are not empty vessels - or parcels to be passed from one place to another - but have feeling and opinions. They are probably the ones best place to tell us how to make them feel included! In the next course - Creating an Inclusive school - there is a section on listening to learners.

2. The wave model seems to be well understood and appreciated as a helpful way of thinking about inclusive education. If you have experience of knowledge of other models - do share them. 

3. The thread on behaviour had some interesting contributions, highlighting the complexity of the issue: children can behave badly if they feel excluded; but consistently poor behaviour means they are more likely to be excluded. The contributions to the discussion highlighted the importance of noticing children and trying to work out why they are behaving badly, and the importance of getting the level of the work right. Children will behave badly if they are bored (too easy) or feeling inadequate (too hard).